On what date is Bilbo Baggins’s birthday in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit?

Bilbo Baggins’s birthday in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is 22 September.

Bilbo is born on 22 September, and the date later becomes important in the chronology of The Lord of the Rings because Frodo Baggins shares it. Bilbo’s birthday party is held in Hobbiton at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, where Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday and Frodo celebrates his 33rd.

The shared birthday is not just a calendar detail. In Tolkien’s fictional culture, coming of age occurs at 33, so Frodo reaches adulthood on the same day that Bilbo reaches the unusually advanced hobbit age of 111. Bilbo’s party also provides the story with the moment when he disappears using the One Ring.

The date is sometimes confused with the publication date of The Hobbit, which was 21 September 1937. Tolkien’s text makes 22 September the birthday date associated with both Bilbo and Frodo.